Category: Scale Models
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Heinkel HE 111 – Part Three – The Aerodynamic Engine

I do not know enough about the differences between British and German aero engines to be able to debate their good and bad points. Suffice it to say I think the British practice of mounting the Merlin engine upright seems to be a darn sight more sensible than the inverted Daimler Benz of the German…
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Heinkel HE 111 – Part Two – Nothing Looks Like An Airplane…

You can get into a rut in model airplane building. I do planes that are mostly British or American types. Sometimes a Soviet job, or the rare Japanese one. In all these cases they have distinctive national characteristics quite apart from paint jobs or insignia. There are styles of fuselages, wings, and engines. Some are…
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Heinkel HE 111 – Part One – Welcome To The Rafwaffe

Yes, you read that right. Rafwaffe. Specifically 1426 Flight RAF. The unit that took captured and abandoned German equipment and tested it for the RAF. At Duxford and RAF Collyweston. They got one of the Heinkel 111’a that had been downed to a soft landing early in the war over the UK and repaired and…
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Don’t Tell Anyone…

In my other three weblog columns I used the lockdown earlier in the year to write about the business of social distancing, working from home, getting supplies, and being brave and stouthearted. I didn’t give it a tinkle here in the Little World – and it wasn’t until I watched the Flory Vlog that I…
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A Modest Proposal

Kit makers are always trying for another use of a previous model. The tricks of new decal sheet and box art plus a hike in price mean that even if you have not invested any money in a new cash cow, you can milk the old one again. The problem is there are only so…
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Fokker F-27 Friendship – Part Three – The Prime Example

You may be a little surprised to see me priming the F-27 fuselage separately from the wings. The reason is that the wings will not be cemented on until the very last moment – they are a different colour than the fuselage and their absence will make the fuselage painting so much easier. I’ll be…
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Fokker F-27 Friendship – Part One – The Shelf Sitter

This Italeri Fokker F-27 Friendship kit sat on the Hobbytech 1:72 shelf for the better part of a year, along with a number of other modern jet models. The fact of the long wait for a buyer might argue that the kit is bad or the price is too high – yet neither of these…
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‘Tis A Gift To Be Simple…

And ’tis even a greater gift when the simplicity comes free…and at the proper time. I have no idea where the instrument seen in the heading image came from. It has been setting in the odd-tool drawer of my modelling cabinet for years. I suspect it came from an art supply store or was remaindered…
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Someone, Somewhere…

There are statistics freaks all over the world – my weblog columns occasionally attract the attention of them when I mention some chart or set of tables. My email clogs for a week with mathematical proof of the existence of carrots. I am philosophical about it – it’s just email and somewhere somebody has to…
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Boeing KB-29A – Part Nine – Flying Gas Station

I must apologise to the readers for not being able to show the standard five views of a new aircraft in this report. The KB-29A in 1:72 scale is just too big for my standard photo table to accommodate in 3:2 or 16:9. I’ve had to resort to a 16mm lens and 1:1 format to…
